A Bold Experiment By: Lynn H. Bentley

The story is set in Boston during the late 1970’s and
told by one observer, who remains detached and creates
vivid scenes for the reader as the story unfolds. This
young man is a Viet Nam veteran and recent college
graduate from a Midwestern University, who gets his
first job as a special assistant to the main character,
a company CEO. He quickly learns that his boss has a
shady past that could include government espionage. He
is the only person in the book who is not corrupted by
the extreme desire to accumulate wealth and live the
“good life”.

Most of the other primary characters have confused and
fleeting values and their own unique form of moral
decay. One of the most flamboyant members of the CEO’s
executive team consistently demonstrates selfish and
arrogant behavior and flaunts the relationship with his
mistress to coworkers and friends. His wife, who was
raised as a “southern bell”, comes from old money and
tries to create a warm, exciting image but the readers
slowly learn that she is as self centered as her husband
and much colder. Her best friend creates a smoke screen
of apparent virtue to cover her cowardice and dishonesty
to support the denial of her true amoral nature.

The Boston “social scene” puts the main character on a
pedestal which further magnifies the reality that he is
a tragic hero who has worked feverishly to reach the top
tier of society that remains beyond his reach. The
primary symbols of wealth and power are ostentatious,
richly furnished and massive “high rise” homes that
overlook the city and Boston Harbor. The narrator is
pulled into the role of “match maker” for his boss
and his team member’s wife. They mutually rekindle a
relationship that they believed had ended several years
earlier. Our hero’s sordid past crashes into the trail
of deceit that they create, causing the two deaths to
end the story.